Truth about the Body Mass Index

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2015

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr Mark Porter is a family doctor in the UK and in his 50s. He’s tall and slim and thinks he’s fit and healthy – after all he goes to the gym several times a week. Mark meets experts who measure his weight, height and body fat to find out if he is as healthy as he seems.

He begins by finding out his BMI, or body mass index, a term more and more people are using all over the world. It’s an indicator of whether he is too fat, too thin or just right. It’s relatively easy to work out with a calculator – he divides his weight in kilograms by the square of his height in metres.

Mark compares his BMI against two other ways of measuring body fat, the true test of whether he is overweight or not. Is his BMI as accurate as the results of body fat calculations derived by measuring skin folds and an ultra accurate DEXA scan?

(Photo: Overweight man measuring his waist. Credit: Science Photo Library)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading from the BBC.
0:03.0	The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use,
0:07.0	go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts.
0:10.0	Hi am I? Yes, yes. broadcasts.
0:16.0	Hi, Mark. Yes. Yes. Anita, nice to meet you. How are you? Come on in.
0:18.0	Wow.
0:19.0	Find it all right?
0:20.0	Yeah, this is like a torture chamber in here.
0:21.0	Yeah, that's basically exactly what it is. Most people
0:23.6	come in here and think oh gosh what's going to happen in here and I say well just
0:26.4	you wait and find out. I'm Dr Mark Porter and this is Discovery from the BBC World Service.
0:35.0	Now you might be wondering what I've got myself into. I know I am, but it's less 50 shades of gray than you might imagine.
0:44.0	As a man of a certain age and a GP, I'm very aware of the latest recommendations on what constitutes a healthy
0:50.4	weight and lifestyle.
0:51.9	The MI or body mass index is a term more and more people are using
0:56.3	in differing situations. And it's an indicator of whether you're too fat, too thin, or just right. It's relatively easy to work out with a calculator you
1:06.2	divide weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters. But in recent
1:11.4	years BMI has been getting a bad name, with claims that the index
1:16.0	doesn't work well enough, that it falsely reassures some, and that it unnecessarily
1:21.3	worries others.
1:23.2	Which explains why I'm in a gym, I'm going to test the accuracy of the BMI.
1:27.6	So I'll be comparing what my BMI tells me with the results of body fat calculations derived by measuring skin folds,
	...

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